Builds The 60 known as Mamabear: a tale of rust and good times. (7 Viewers)

[HemiAlex]

The tent is coming from amazon. Next up I need to find some extra Yakima Cross bars.

I bought Brembo front brake rotors and Advics pads off of Rockauto for a really fair price yesterday. I've got a small wobble in the $15 Wagner front rotors, which is to be expected.

 

[HemiAlex]

Tent is on, ladder was damaged in shipping from autoplicity. @orangefj45 helped me out on two major issues with nothing more than a few texts.

-I called arb before the vendor that I bought the RTT from to make sure they had replacement ladders in stock. They had two on the shelf. I couldn’t buy direct so I called georg and he will drop shop it before I go to big bend next week. Autoplicity will refund me the cost of the new ladder.

-I’ve had problems ever since I broke a motor mount with the truck not staying in 4 low while flexing. My t case linkage was poorly adjusted and rubbing the case causing it to slip out. I initially thought I’d destroyed my rebuilt t case but it ended up being a simple adjustment. Georg affirmed the fact that I probably had an incorrectly adjusted linkage and today I was able to sort it. My shifter home position for 4 low was too close to the passengers side and it would tap the floor and knock it self out.

Up this week:

Brake shoes, new ps pump and line, and felpro intake manifold gasket to be replaced with an oem to stop my final exhaust leak.

Also, I threw on a new voltage regulator and an optima group 34 red top battery. I had the truck not start for the first time ever last week and I went through the paces of diagnosing it. 3 year old battery and the failing voltage regulator causing not enough charge. The truck has never started this quickly. Feels great.

I’m not thrilled about the optima battery, I’ve heard some not so great things. But I do know that I’m pretty much always going to be close to an O’reilly auto parts if it fails. I wanted the x2 or odyssey but I couldn’t get one in the timeframe I needed. We will see how this goes.

The cb wiring is complete, with a firestick on a spring/quick connect, cord routed into the cabin and my midland 75-822 will be here Monday. I’ve also got a nifty mount for it.

 

[madvr6]

I have some Yakima bars if you need them for you trip. You wanting more than the 2 you have?

 

[HemiAlex]

I have some Yakima bars if you need them for you trip. You wanting more than the 2 you have?

Can you check if they’re 66” and take a picture of the mounts?

 

[HemiAlex]

I've got a trend of not trusting the factory gauges at all, and this falls in line with that.

I saw this on YouTube and had to have it. This will give me more insight into what the charging system is doing while not adding anything else to the gauge closer.

I'll be giving a real review of it on this next trip. Pretty nifty stuff.

 

[gregnash]

I've got a trend of not trusting the factory gauges at all, and this falls in line with that.

I saw this on YouTube and had to have it. This will give me more insight into what the charging system is doing while not adding anything else to the gauge closer.

I'll be giving a real review of it on this next trip. Pretty nifty stuff.

s***, I might have to grab one of those for myself.. Definitely keep us informed on that nifty little device.

This looks to be the US accessible version here.

 

[HemiAlex]

Intake/exhaust manifold gasket was done for. Don’t use the felpro.

OEM was way better. I’m not surprised.

Brake shoes were fine, my e brake cables in the drum we’re done for. One broken and the other is on its way out. That’s the noise I’ve been hearing.

ARB compressor and power steering tomorrow.

And my ladder will arrive tomorrow. We’re almost ready for a this long trip.

 

[HemiAlex]

I found my exhaust leak(s). The truck is dead silent now.

 

[gregnash]

So you fully split the manifold?

 

[cwwfj60]

brake shoes are a good idea

 

[HemiAlex]

The truck is ready to roll to big bend.

Added an extra set of cross bars and basket, finished the tent install, installed the cb, added an arb compressor underhood, rewired the battery with an optima red top, new oem ps pump, fixed a charging issue, new belts, added a wireless battery monitor, fixed a manifold leak and did a safety check. It’s solid and quiet as ever.

 

[HemiAlex]

250 miles today with a late start, tomorrow 3.4 hours into alpine. Some business and then we will make it into big bend Monday. The truck has been running great and the mileage hasn’t dropped badly considering all the junk on top and the massive headwind today.

Getting 14mpg at 65mph with at least 600 lbs of extra stuff.

 

[gregnash]

Nicely done alex!

 

[cwwfj60]

Post an update on Old ore road when you get there...I hear it’s still blocked by that massive unimog...

 

[houstonfj40]

You will be fine with the Optima

 

[HemiAlex]

Post an update on Old ore road when you get there...I hear it’s still blocked by that massive unimog...

They cleared it earlier today.

The driving has been uneventful. I developed a bigger crack in my already cracked original coolant reservoir. I’ve got extra coolant, jb weld and an extra coolant reservoir from a parts hours. I’ll be fine.

Also, my cb is sharing the cigarette lighter power wire with the radio and I’m getting interference. I have to turn the radio off to have it work properly. Not a big deal.

We will enter the national park tomorrow and I’m hoping that it’s empty due to the shut down. I’m prepared to exist without any facilities.

 

[BHillteq]

Most of the time I find people on Instagram after seeing them on here, but this time was opposite haha. She's a beaut!

 

[HemiAlex]

This truck never stops making me happy. Just exited big bend a few days early due to the shut down. Had a riot in it. More pics and words to come.

 

[Nostradamus]

That power steering pump is a thing of beauty. I went the Saginaw route on my rig - works great, but doesn't have the same cache as an OEM unit.

 

[HemiAlex]

That power steering pump is a thing of beauty. I went the Saginaw route on my rig - works great, but doesn't have the same cache as an OEM unit.

The Saginaw makes perfect sense, don’t get me wrong. But when something lasts 30 years while leaking and being beaten, you buy one before you never get the chance to again.

I’ll keep a Saginaw bracket for when this one dies, but for now I’m leak free!